Laughing over here – I love your inference. I often go straight to the "over-compensating for something smaller" idea, but I saw one other previous comment suggesting the only likely buyers would be Arabian Sheiks. Probably accurate.

I'm making a comment now, 8 months late, as I just saw this article posted in a Design-News Daily Update email which just broadcast on 12/30/2013.

Satellite-Assisted transmission shifting-? Talk about taking the fun out of driving a high-priced performance vehicle -- Might as well come with a queen-sized sleeper, and satin sheets. Engineering Over-Kill. Sounds like taking the train, with a sleeping berth. Arabian Sheiks, for sure.

One other question arises, at least in my mind, is how well would the "wraith" even survive in the saturated saltspray environment in a southeastern Michigan winter. The salinity is far worse than the military salt spray test, and it goes on for a minimum of three months. So the sealing needs to be at least perfect and long lasting as well.

And then given the pace of development, how long will spare parts be available? Or is this car to be "serviced as an assembly" the way so many things are?

The new RR Wraith does sound like quite an engineering marvel, but then I find myself wondering why anybody would be willing to spend that much for a car. So while it is certainly a demonstration of what determined engineers can produce when cost is not much of a consideration, it does bring to my mind the question of "why bother?" $320K is more than three years pay for a whole lot of people.

I suppose if you could afford a car costing north of $320K, gas mileage would not be an issue. I would love to know what MPG this "ride" migh provide. With a curb weight of 5200 pounds, can't be that much . Great post Charles.

RR had no choice but to produce a performance version in their range, the alternative would be to loose customers to other luxury brands that have them already. They couldn't call it a Bently because when RR was sold-off, the VAG group bought the name. BMW only got the RR car devision.

As an Englishman, of course it was sad to see RR fall into "enemy" hands, but it has to be said that BMW have largely respected the RR tradition for ultra-high quality engineering, luxury and innovation.

Yes, Jim E, Cadillac did have night vision a few years back. I drove it but couldn't get the hang of using it. I like this idea better -- if it sees a "hot spot," it displays a yellow triangle on the head-up display.

Industrial workplaces are governed by OSHA rules, but this isn’t to say that rules are always followed. While injuries happen on production floors for a variety of reasons, of the top 10 OSHA rules that are most often ignored in industrial settings, two directly involve machine design: lockout/tagout procedures (LO/TO) and machine guarding.

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